Silent Hillwood
by NintendoGal55
Summary: Arnold and Helga venture into the dark, mysterious depths that is Silent Hillwood, discovering many horrors and mysteries along the way about the abandoned city. Within the fog blanketing it all, nothing is what it seems.
1. Prologue

Even today, a lot people wondered about this place. The darkness, the mysteries behind it, the damage, the...isolation. Because that's how you feel the minute you step beyond the outer borders of the small city. No one knew if it had been like this all this time. They always said...the moment you came in, you would never come out alive.

Monsters roam, the dead rise, a thick fog blankets the area like a barrier. The silence surrounds you, reminding you of even the slightest sound, making you jump at every turn.

Every moment the passes, you feel the isolation. The impassive cruelty. The kind of cruelty that would so much as step on you than look at you. It's heartless. Heartless. All you feel is fear, and worse off, that you are entirely and inevitably alone. The isolation of this place is enough to make you go insane, to scream out to the heavens begging for mercy, but no prayers are answered in this dreaded place.

It's as if your worst nightmare came to life. When you're in this seemingly deserted, lonely, foggy, desolate place...you feel as if you're in a wide-awake nightmare. Moreover, you feel as if you're in Hell. This town did have a history of fires...and maybe now lacks the fire and brimstone, but oh yes, you feel as if you're in Hell.

So what is this place, anyway? It's Hillwood city.

A lot of people call it Silent Hillwood.

But I...

I call it Silent Hellwood.

Welcome to Hell.

xx...x...xxx..

**Hey guys. This is a new story I thought of heavily inspired by the _Silent Hill _franchise. I just wanted to get this little intro, narrated by Helga, by the way, out to you all. I may be slow in updating this, considering nothing is entirely set in stone and I have to add and edit some ideas to this.**

**But I will do my best! This will be different from my other fics. Full of horror, suspense, darkness, mystery...it's going to be pretty weird. It will be AU, so things will be different with the characters and of course with the setting.**

**And of course, I wouldn't be the Queen of Fluff without romance! So no worry, there WILL be romantic moments and some fluff. But all of that is not the main focus of the story.**

**Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. :)**

**Oh yes, and no worry, the rating will change later. :D  
**


	2. Endless Fog

**Thought I'd get this going. :D I've watched a few "Let's Plays" of **_**Silent Hill**__**2**_** and **_**Silent Hill 4: The Room, Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Silent Hill 1...**_** And I've read some things on the Silent Hill Wiki, some articles and whatnot, so now I have a little more knowledge of the ideas of Silent Hill.**

**But no worry. I'll be adding my own flare. :D **

**Oh yes, the three staples will be present. The flashlight, swivel head model, the radio to detect monsters, and of course, the siren. It IS different from any of the Silent Hill sirens, from the games and the movie...but there will still be one. Our siren will be the one inspired from the movie adaptation of **_**The Mist**_**. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.**

**WARNING: Disturbing and graphic words to be seen ahead. You have been word. Violence, gore, disturbing descriptions, and sexual content will be present.**

**The first monster encounter was inspired by **_**Silent Hill 2**_**.**

XXX

There was a dense, thick blanket of fog all around, as if there was a smoke machine turned on nearby. It was like something out of a horror movie, or the movie adaptation of Stephen King's _The Mist_. The fog felt as if it were a part of the mystery of the abandoned, desolate city beyond the border, beyond the decrepit but still eligible sign that read _**Welcome to Hillwood City**_.

It was said, whoever went into the old city...never came out. There were many unsolved mysteries of the horrors that lurked within the small city, many had tried to see for themselves to see if the rumours were true. Were there really ghosts of troubled people wandering around? Were there monsters lurking? Was it truly as its nickname intended, Hell?

There was fog blanketing the city. That was what two young adults noticed when they stepped out of the car, heading to the city limit. It was hard to see a few feet in front of them where they stood, but they could just barely make out the shapes and silhouettes of buildings, the street, and lampposts. There were even some parked cars along the curbs. If one traveled through thick fog before, they would know that anything in fog would appear ghost like. And that's what everything seemed to be. Like they were ghosts.

"This is really it. ...Hillwood. Silent Hillwood. ...Silent _Hell_wood." A pair of azure eyes drifted to the city's welcome sign, and a scoff escaped her lips. "Welcome to Hillwood...tch. May as well say _Welcome to Hell_."

"It looks so abandoned...no sign of movement anywhere." Came the reply of the young man with her, his green eyes wandering around the sights before them. Or lack thereof. "We should go further, before we make any further judgement."

Helga Pataki brushed back some strands of her blonde hair from her face, glancing toward him with amused curiosity. "You know, I'll never understand why you seemed so eager to come with me."

A mild blush tinted the young man's cheeks, and he exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, you know...I have my reasons. Besides, I've been curious about all the things about this town. I...I think we can really gather evidence and clues as to why it is the way it is. We'd just have to be careful, since people go missing in this place. ...No wonder, with all that fog, it must be easy to get lost." A thoughtful "hmm" came from Arnold Shortman as he paused a moment. "I wonder if we could find a map of the city."

"You can say that again." Helga agreed, rolling her eyes. "Who knows, we'll never know until we go on and explore."

Without much of another word spoken between them, they walked past the sign, past the border city limit, and ventured into the fog. It felt pretty cold, which was odd since it was only June. It felt like a fairly cold spring day. Thankfully the plaid shirt Arnold had on was flannel, which served better than just a t-shirt. Helga also, had her own little jacket on, which helped, but both of them felt quite chilled.

"It's like in Stephen King's _The Mist_." Helga murmured, looking around them as her eyes tried to focus on the obscured sights around them. "Who knows what could be hiding in all this fog..."

Arnold gave a soft murmur in agreement, as he looked around the buildings, lampposts and parked cars as they walked along the middle of the road. His hand went into his pants pocket, feeling something in there, and for a moment he ran his fingers along it as if to make sure it was still there, and then withdrew his hand as they kept walking. He felt curious, amazed, and above all, scared as hell. He felt as if he were moving against his will. He wanted to take her hand and run back to the car, to get the hell out of here. Something about it all, whether it was the fog, the desolation, the mysteries, the stories, whatever it was, he was scared, and it felt as if something bad would happen. It wasn't just a bad feeling, it felt as if it were a _premonition_. Just like you knew that you were going out to a certain destination. It's something you're just sure of that will happen in the future.

That's what he felt right now.

But there was so much that prevented him from turning back. A part of that had to do with his companion. She was dead set on coming to this supposedly haunted city. To gather information, get pictures, and explore, to go on an adventure. He couldn't blame her, he too was hungry for adventure and wanted to explore this place. Plus, he refused to let her go through this alone. That, to him, would lead to disaster. They were both avid horror movie fans, and they knew the very dangers of what happens when you go someplace scary all alone.

Of course, horror movies were exaggerated and not always realistic, but it did give them a sense of what COULD happen if they followed a lot of the stupid mistakes that horror movie protagonists would make. So while it wasn't the best kind of survival guide to follow, it was still something to keep in mind.

They couldn't leave yet. Not without seeing the inner depths of this city first hand. It was time to find answers. Time to solve the mysteries. Time to lay the rumours to rest. Time to expose the truth. All they could hope was that they would make it out alive. Whether or not they would, was also a mystery in itself.

It was so eerie, so quiet, not a sound was heard. Only the sounds of their footsteps along the road could be heard. The mild, soft thudding of Helga's hiking boots, and the clip-clap of Arnold's sneakers. Sights ahead of them were less obscured by the fog as they approached, and there were, above all, no signs of life anywhere. As if no one had been here for some time. As if abandoned, like the city had got up and left. Was anyone left here? Were they alone? Truly and utterly isolated in this place all alone?

The stories said that the city made you feel utterly alone. Isolated, trapped. Could it really have been that scary? Nothing seemed scarier than being isolated in a strange place you didn't understand.

Nothing was moving at all. No people, no dogs, no cats, no birds, nothing. It was as if everyone just picked up and left. Signs reading _**Sorry, We're Closed **_or _**Out Of Business**_ were hung on various store windows along the street.

So they walked, and walked on, taking in the sights they could see. Not a word was spoken between them for a few minutes. It wasn't until Helga spotted something sitting on the seat of a nearby car with its door open. Curiosity got the best of her, and she wandered over it, also catching Arnold's attention. She went closer, and reached out, taking the piece of paper off the seat. Much to her surprise, it was a map of the city. At least, the primary area. The downtown portion of the city wasn't included, as far as she could tell. None the less, it was a map labelling the streets and buildings, exactly what they needed.

"Well how do you like that, we've got a map." Helga said, looking it over.

"Really?" Arnold walked over to see, peering over her shoulder to look at it. "And it's in good condition, too. I wonder who could've left it there?"

"Beats me. At least we have one. Score." Helga looked it over for a moment, trying to pinpoint where they were. They had been walking straight, and near them was an old antique store, which was labelled Antiques Galore on the map, and indicated by an old sign above the door. She then rolled it up, placing it in her pocket for safe keeping. "If we keep going ahead and make a right, we'll eventually come to Bermuda street. Not far off from there we'll find the Mayor's office. Maybe there we can find some stuff about the city's history or something."

"I think you're right, we could go check it out." Arnold said agreeably. "Let's keep going."

With a map of the city in their arsenal, the two of them kept on walking down the road as they had been before. Silence befell them, except for their footsteps along the street, with no such sounds to be heard yet again. Many questions lingered in their minds, but most especially, now what? What would they find next? Where would they end up?

A mild _splish_ noise sounded from beneath Helga's boot, as if she had stepped in a puddle. Instinctively, Helga looked down as she stopped, raising her foot to see what she had stepped in. "Oh!"

"What? What?" Arnold turned back around, having gone a couple of steps ahead of her when she had stopped. He followed her gaze, and came to see the answer to her reaction.

There was a puddle of blood below her foot. In fact, the same blood also had a trail going ahead on the road, in a streak, as if something bloody was being slid along the road. There were breaks in the streaks, almost like they were foot prints, and yet no foot shapes were present. The streaks continued on along the street, and disappeared into the fog. A trail.

"What the hell?" Helga uttered, staring down at the puddle, and raising her head slightly to follow the trail, wondering where they led to. "What could've made this blood like that? They're not footprints, but how would you slide something across the ground and then lift it up and slide it again?"

"I don't know, that's really weird." Arnold gingerly knelt down. He didn't have much of a problem with blood, but it did strike an uncomfortable knot in his stomach, given the circumstances, and especially not knowing who caused it. ...Or _what_ caused it. Upon a closer look, he could see that it was fairly fresh, having just happened recently. "Whatever it was, it's gone now, but it couldn't have happened too long ago. Some of it is still wet."

"So, whatever made that, or had that happen, can't be too far off." Helga stared down at the blood some more, and then up ahead again. "I wonder where the trail leads to. Maybe we should follow it."

Arnold grimaced as he stood up. "Um, I don't think we should do that, Helga. Whatever did this or had this done to might be..." His voice trailed off. "I don't know, it doesn't seem like a good idea."

"C'mon, Football Head, I just want to see what's up with this! Maybe it'll give us some answers." Helga said, now beginning to follow it.

"Helga, we really-" Arnold began, but stopped in midsentence.

"...What?" Helga stared at him, confused.

"...I heard something."

"In all this quietness? Must've been your imagination."

Not answering, he strained his ears for the sound. It came again. This time it was fainter, but definitely there. Whatever it was, it was coming from ahead of them. Arnold turned to look back ahead, and much to his surprise, he saw _movement_ in the fog. Not just any kind of moment, but there was a shadow, a form, walking away into the fog. It was only for a brief moment that he saw it, but there was something very off about the movement. The sound had been strange footsteps. Very strange, and unsettling footsteps.

"Helga! Did you see that?" Arnold pointed ahead.

"Yeah, I saw that shadow. I couldn't make it out, though." Helga looked at him then. "C'mon, we should follow it. See what the hell it is. I bet it's even following along the bloody trail."

"We really shouldn't..."

But she was already walking away, following the bloody trail. With no other option, Arnold walked in a fast stride to catch up with her before she would disappear in the fog. Even though she wouldn't be gone, it did still give him a bad feeling if she walked off and seemed to disappear into the thick blanket of fog, the endless abyss...

They followed the bloody trail, but no signs of the strange walking shadow from earlier were to be seen. Not to mention they couldn't even hear the footsteps. All they could do was follow the trail. Curiosity was beginning to override the fear, and Arnold knew, that despite Helga hiding it well, she was scared too. Who wouldn't be? He definitely was. But, he was wondering what was going on and wanted to find some answers. Even to just this little mystery, with the blood puddle, streaky trail, and then the walking shadowed figure with the strange footsteps that just disappeared into the nothingness.

As they went along, the trail of blood then curved, and evidently headed into an alleyway nearby.

"Think it went in there?" Helga wondered out loud.

"Maybe. The trail leads in there. Whether or not our shadow thing went in there is beyond me." Arnold responded, biting his lip nervously.

As they approached, there was a strange noise coming from the alleyway. It was dark, and foggy, but the dim glow of a lantern light attached to the wall fairly illuminated the place a bit. More sounds emitted, intermixing with the first sound.

The first sound, it sounded like static. White noise. Like the white noise static of a radio. Much to their surprise, there was a radio sitting on a barrel against the wall, not far from a dumpster. It was a small pocket radio with a little holding clip on the back of it that was presumably for clipping on to pockets or whatever. The source of the static was coming from it.

"Hey look at that, a radio." Helga went over to it, and picked it up, inspecting it. She turned the dial, and the volume dial, but for some reason, it didn't turn off. "Hey...it's broken! What the hell?"

"Maybe it's just malfunctioning." Arnold murmured, coming up behind her, and then looking further into the alleyway. His eyes went wide when he saw the horrific sight of the source of the other sounds.

There was a strange-looking creature, seemingly devouring a corpse on the ground. An actual corpse. Blood, various internal body parts were strewn on the ground, and the corpse itself was missing part of its head, a gaping wound was on its stomach, with its entrails leaking out, and the strange creature was _eating_ from it!

The creature itself was a tall, armless humanoid creature, with flesh along its body that served as a grotesque straightjacket. It didn't have a face, but there were gaping holes along the head, and it made strange noises from an unseen mouth as it devoured its meal. Its legs were long, thin, and a little off, and it looked as if it were wearing platform shoes, but encased in the same flesh it was covered in.

"_Oh my God!_" Arnold cried in terror, stumbling back a step. As if the sight of the horrific corpse wasn't bad enough, but the weird...monstrous..._thing_ was enough to bring a wave of nausea to his stomach, and a deep fear he could have never imagined to feel. This was something you'd see in a monster movie, or comic, or TV show, ANYTHING fictional!

The armless monster thing looked toward him with unseen eyes, and eventually stood up, albeit in a wobbling manner, and skulked toward him. Horrified, Arnold looked around rapidly for a means of defense. ANYTHING to stop the weird armless monster, before he would become its next cadaver meal.

His eyes fell on a long, thin steel pipe laying on the ground. As if it had been dropped, since no other visible steel pipes were laying around or even exposed on the walls. Before he could think it through, his hand grabbed it off the ground, and stood protectively in front of Helga, who had tried to step forward to take care of it herself. He wasn't a violent person in the least, but this monster was definitely bent on harming them, and he had to defend her and himself.

The monster came closer, and Arnold swung the pipe, striking it on the head. It let out an agonized yell and stumbled more in its footsteps a bit, shedding some kind of strange substance from the holes in its flesh covering. Feeling more confident, he hit the monster again, and again, earning agonized yells each time. Eventually, the monster faltered and fell to the ground, blood spewing from it, and it made no movement. Arnold kicked it lightly just to be sure, disgusted.

"What _is _that thing?" He wanted to know.

"Holy shit..." Helga breathed heavily, holding her chest. "That was... a monster. But what the hell...you don't see things like that!" She looked at him then, a fond, lovesick look to her face, which he thankfully didn't see. Although she wasn't about to completely admit it, she was genuinely impressed at how he'd been able to find the nerve to fight it off despite that he was both disgusted and scared as hell. A soft swoon escaped her, and she wanted to throw her arms around him and thank him properly for trying to protect her and defend them against a monster you would never see in real life. "Still...that was pretty good, Football Head. For someone who hates violence."

A blush settled on Arnold's cheeks. "...Well, I had to do something. By the looks of the..." He couldn't even say it, or look at the corpse. "...yeah, I had a feeling we'd be its next meal if I didn't do something."

"Better take that steel pipe with you, just in case." Helga said, and looked at the radio again. "Hey...the radio's not emitting static anymore. It...stopped the minute you killed that monster. Weird. I thought it was broken." She hooked it onto her belt with the clip it had on the back of it.

"I don't know, it's like it was emitting static when the monster was nearby, and then when it was dead, it...stopped." Arnold murmured thoughtfully. "You think maybe...nah, it's probably a coincidence."

"Maybe." Helga shrugged. She looked back down at the ground, seeing that the bloody trail ended at the corpse, and made a face, before looking away. "Well, now we know where our bloody trail came from. Let's get the hell out of here before that..._thing_ re-spawns."

Arnold nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's go. Let's go try to find the Mayor's office and see if we can find anything."

The two emerged from the alleyway, with a steel pipe in their arsenal as well, perfect for defence, hopefully. The broken radio was clipped to Helga's belt, and was dead silent. Strangely, neither of them compelled to throw it away. Especially since they wondered why it stopped emitting static when the monster was defeated.

Moreover, what the hell was that monster? They still didn't understand it. It wasn't a cruel joke or prank played on by someone, the flesh straightjacket-like covering was far too grotesque, and even so, who would put together such an elaborate costume as THAT to make a joke? It didn't make sense. And if it were just a person, they would have stopped Arnold from attacking...and also wouldn't be eating a very real corpse's entrails. No. There was nothing fake about it. It was a real monster. A strange, armless monster.

Both Arnold and Helga had a feeling it wasn't the last monster they were going to encounter.

XX~~XX

**Yep! It's the Lying Figure from **_**Silent Hill 2**_**, or also known as the Armless Man from the movie adaptation. And I decided to give them a steel pipe right away, like in **_**Silent Hill 4: The Room**_** when the first weapon you get is the steel pipe in your bathroom. **


	3. Subway

**WARNING: I am changing the rating to M for mature.**

**Okay, so I know some people (mostly on dA) have wondered what their backstory is here. Now, I don't want to give TOO much away, since a lot of their pasts will be revealed in the story. But here's a quick run down.**

**They both grew up in Seattle. Although Helga still did kind of bully Arnold, they did have a cautious friendship too. A little more so than in the series. Helga is still in love with him, and yes, Arnold is actually in love with her too. But he's of course afraid to admit to her because he fears she won't love him back and will laugh at him. Gerald and Phoebe are also still their best friends. And the other P.S. 118 students? Maybe the other adults? ...Sorry guys, that's going to be revealed later. :)**

**Okay, now for the monsters. Yes, like I said, I'll borrow some of the monsters from the games. But there are a few I'll be creating that I have in mind. ;) And they represent the psyches of our antagonists. Sometimes either Arnold or Helga, and sometimes both of them at once. Turning to our first monster...**

**The Lying Figure: Helga's inner struggles and trying to escape the confines of her walls. Arnold dealing with people with problems a lot of the time, and how they sometimes can be crazy and frustrating.**

**Anyway, I do have my own character making an appearance here. X3 She's kind of inspired by Cybil Bennett from Silent Hill 1.**

**The pay phone scene comes from Silent Hill 4. If you call the Southfield Bar number (555-3750), you'll hear the disturbing voice of a ghost on the other line. CREEPY!**

**Characters belong to Craig Bartlett. **

**Monsters (that are not my own creation) belong to Konami.**

XXX

This time they didn't walk through the fog blanketed streets of the city. Oh no, this time they ran, or simply jogged, mostly to get to their destination faster, as well as to evade any sort of threat that might've been lurking in the shadows. Or the endless abyss that was the fog for that matter. How funny. Barely twenty or thirty minutes in this place and they were already on the verge of wetting themselves.

Not a sound, except for the huffing of their breaths and the pounding of their footsteps on the street were heard, as they jogged briskly along the deserted road. All seemed well and quiet, just as it had before they had had the run-in with that horrendous straitjacket monster. But they felt no sense of peace at all. A good part of their minds were urging them to get the hell out of this place before they found out what else was out there.

They finally stopped next to an abandoned coffee shop known as Bigal's Cafe to catch their breath. The glass of the front window was broken, and the door was beaten down so bad it was a wonder it still stood. Upon a look inside, due to their curiosity, there was broken glass, scattered rotten food, shattered mugs, it was a mess. The tables and chairs, some still standing, were overturned or broken, adding to the chaos.

"You'd think there was some kind of bar fight in there." Helga remarked.

"Whatever it was...seemed to have gotten the rest of the city, too." Arnold looked around their surroundings, the fog still blanketing any and all things a few feet ahead of them.

Right then, the radio strapped to Helga's belt emitted white noise static yet again, which confused them. Hadn't it been broken, or turned off for that matter?

_Tap tap tap tap tap_.

Both of them froze upon the strange, tapping-esque footsteps that sounded nearby. Looking to their right, the direction they had come in, they were horrified to find the straitjacket monster hobbling toward them. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was a _second_ one right behind it! It looked exactly the same as the first one they saw, and this one here approaching them. The proportions, movements, and design were identical. As if perfectly cloned.

The closest one to them reared back a bit, as if stretching its upper body, and a gaping opening along its chest heaved open, and a strange-looking substance shot out of it, heading right at them. Arnold gasped and dodged, but some of it sprayed onto his leg. He winced in pain, looking down briefly to see that it had burned a bit through his pants and on his skin, realizing that if he had been covered in it, or his face for that matter, he'd have been toast. It was acidic, to say the least.

Clutching the steel pipe in his hands, he made a run for the nearest straitjacket monster, the one who had attempted to spray him. Before it could attempt to do so again, he swung the steel pipe, bringing it down on its head. A sickening _crack_ was heard as the pipe made contact with the creature's head, cracking its...skull? The monster faltered, letting out an agonized cry. Arnold went in again, striking it on the neck, awkwardly angling its head. With a couple more swings, it fell to the ground, wiggling uselessly. But it then started to raise itself to get up, albeit slowly doing so.

"Oh no you don't! You don't get back up!" Helga stepped around Arnold and brought her hiking booted foot down on the creature's neck, effectively silencing and stilling it.

"Thanks, Helga." Arnold said gratefully, before he went in to take care of the other monster. Like its comrade, it tried to spew out its acidic substance, but Arnold struck it on the head a couple of times, and then on the neck. To add to it, he swung the steel pipe at its legs, effectively making it fall.

But while on the ground, it skittered away on its stomach, making strange and ear-piercing screeching noises as it did so. Angrily, Helga grabbed the steel pipe from Arnold and chased after it, catching up to it. She struck the pipe on its spine once, twice, three times, and a fourth time. Once it was still, she again stomped on its back, killing it. When it died, the radio was then silenced.

Arnold went over to her, amazed and relieved, and took the steel pipe when she handed it back to him. "Wow, Helga...that was amazing."

"Hey, I had to do something." Helga said nonchalantly. She bit her lip a bit, and looked back down at the radio. "Say, that's weird. The radio emitted static when the monsters came over, and then it stopped the minute they were both dead. What's up with that?"

Before Arnold could ponder a ponder a possible answer, the radio emitted static yet again, and they could hear the tap-clicking footsteps of a straitjacket monster now approaching them again. Further down the street in the fog, he could see two more, but they were just wobbling about aimlessly, indicating they weren't that interested.

"My turn, Arnoldo." Helga took the steel pipe from him and went to place her own beating on the monster.

Just as the monster reared back a bit to release its acidic, venomous spray at her, Helga dodged by stepping aside and striking the monster on the side. It stumbled and made a jarring cry, faltering in its previous attempts. She let out a snarl and struck the monster on its hunched head. More strange blood-like goop spewed out from the open wounds of the flesh it was encased in. The monster then fell to the ground disgracefully, twitching uselessly, at least until Helga forcefully stomped her foot on it hard. It stilled on the ground, dead, and the radio silenced.

She walked back over to him, handing the steel pipe back. The other straitjacket monster had wandered off, still disinterested, thankfully. Walking over to a lampost, she took out the map from her pocket, pinpointing their location and where they could go next.

Meanwhile, Arnold glanced around, surveying for more monsters or anything else to be found. He glanced down at the ground below him instinctively, and caught sight of a reddish piece of paper with some writing on it. Kneeling down for further inspection, it was a traffic ticket, the kind that traffic cops carried with them. The handwriting was neat and precise, despite being written fairly small to save space.

_**They're everywhere, from what I can tell. These...things. I'm going to try to investigate the subway, maybe somehow I can find some answers, or at least phones that would work. I can't call for backup here. Still, I wonder about what lurks down there.**_

_**June 14**_

Arnold frowned thoughtfully, noting that the date was today's date. Had someone been here too? Was there really another human being around? Either way, he took the note and studied it further just as Helga came up to him to see what he was looking at.

"What'cha got there?" She inquired.

"It's a traffic ticket, but someone wrote on it, and it was signed with today's date. That could mean there's someone else here...maybe they're still here. Probably down in the subway."

Helga grimaced. "The subway? _Here_? There could be RATS down there!"

Arnold realized of course, Helga was scared of rats. Despite that she didn't openly admit it, he just knew that she was.

"I know, but if there is someone down there, and still down there, depending when they wrote this, we could probably have a chance of getting help." Arnold tried to reason, though he sounded uncertain, and put the note into his pocket. "Where is the nearest subway, anyway?"

Breathing through her nose, Helga indicated ahead of them. "Not far from Vine Street. That's where we can go. There's also a subway entrance near the Mayor's Office, so we can get out through there, too."

"All right." The young man nodded, and bit his lip. "Maybe we can find a payphone or something down there, too, and maybe try to get help."

"Please. This is going to turn out to be a standard horror movie cliche, where the phones don't work." Helga rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go."

Not another word was spoken as they progressed down the street into the endless fog ahead of them.

Once more a heavy silence befell the pair, with only the sounds of their breathing and footsteps along the ground to be heard. Although not showing it, Helga was growing to be scared. Very scared. And it wasn't just that, but it was a strange feeling she had when she was here. It was indescribable, no emotions could label it properly. She couldn't put her finger on it if she tried. She even wondered if it had to do with why she wanted to come here. Was it pulling her here? Was the reason coming here a lot more than just trying to expose the truth? By now, Helga wasn't sure.

The young woman glanced over at her companion, walking alongside her in strides almost in sync with her own. He was staring straight ahead, the single dazzling green eye concentrated on the fog. His lips pursed, and then he bit his lower lip in thought, as if contemplating. His wild blonde hair stuck up on his head, pointing in all directions, but even now looked slightly droopy, as if losing its life. He was holding the steel pipe in his left hand, so that he wouldn't hit it against her by accident or anything like that. Such a gentleman. She looked down at his hand, her own occasionally swinging very slightly toward it, but didn't dare make contact. She wanted to hold his hand, so much, especially right now, with the fear and anxiety clinging to her like a fly to sticky flypaper. Then again, she always wanted to hold his hand, it was a given. And it wasn't as if they never did, there were several occasions in the past that they held hands. Albeit leading her to unwillingly wrench it away. Once he had even kissed her hand, under the impression that she was someone else, of course.

It was a part of what made her long to just tell him she loved him. And wanted nothing more than to bask in the warm, secure feeling of his embrace, hold his hand whenever she pleased, and kiss those sweet lips...

Helga shook her head of such thoughts. Now was not the time. Not in the middle of a foggy, abandoned, desolate small city that was now definitely infested with monsters. He was there with her, and that was more than comfort enough.

However, she decided to just screw the rules and go for it. He was a gentleman, sure, and he'd understand that she was probably just doing it so they wouldn't separate and because she was scared, or thought HE was scared, which she knew he was. Not that she would mock him for it. Now wasn't the time for that either. She could let down her walls just a bit.

Besides, it wasn't as if they were going to run into anyone they knew. Hell, no one was around to see them, anyway.

She reached over and held his hand. Arnold jerked lightly in surprise, and glanced at her. She could swear she saw a hint of a blush on his cheeks, and he made no attempt to move his hand away. In fact, he was hesitating, as if afraid that if his hand moved, she would let go. But she didn't. Once assured, he squeezed her hand gently, and she felt a warm feeling come to her heart, and resisted the urge to swoon. The fear and anxiety were soothed a little bit, but not deterred.

Not a moment too soon, the radio strapped to her belt crackled to life, and across the street to their right they could see yet another straitjacket monster hobbling about near the sidewalk. Before Helga got it in her mind to attack, Arnold's hand tightened around hers and he broke into a run. It surprised Helga momentarily, but she followed his lead and ran along with him, further into the dense fog. The radio silenced as they distanced themselves from the monster, and it looked like there weren't any nearby as they went along, thankfully.

XXX

Much later, and thankfully without much monster encounters, Arnold and Helga descended down some steps to come into the subway. The lights surprisingly worked, and despite that it was desolate, dirty, and completely abandoned, it was just like any other subway station.

An abandoned subway station, of course.

"Who knows what kind of monsters are down here..." Helga muttered to herself as they explored the first platform they came to.

It was platform six. And there was actually a subway car on the tracks. The lights were on and a few doors were opened, but other than that, it just sat there, as if it would never move again. Arnold cautiously peered into one of the cars, and saw that it was empty.

A piece of paper sat on one of the seats, it was written on notebook paper. To his surprise, it was a morbid poem.

_**It burns all around**_

_**How it burns me so**_

_**I die for sins not mine**_

_**I burn for sins of her own**_

_**The flames arise**_

_**Surround me in a blaze**_

_**May I burn for her sins**_

_**May I soon end this horrid craze**_

Nothing more was written after that. Arnold studied it a few more moments before he pocketed it, wondering if maybe it would come in handy later. Seeing nothing else in the car, he exited it, with Helga following after him.

At the end of the platform he saw a door in the wall, probably leading to an inner control room or something. Upon reaching the door, he tried it, and found that the lock was broken. Helga tried it herself, and got the same result.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." She groaned. "Let's try those stairs over there."

The pair ascended the stairs, this time coming to the Vine Street line and exit, and the Bermuda Street line and exit. Neither of them could get through the turnstiles, they would need a token or a commuter ticket.

Defeated, they explored the rest of the floor to see what there was. There were two corridors they could go on either side around the turnstiles, there were ads on the walls, subway schedules, and a stand of newspapers.

Helga beelined to the newspapers, and picked the first one up. Much to her surprise, it was today's date. "What the hell? This newspaper has today's date on it. The same _year_, no less. Who is out there making newspapers? This city is...is gone! Abandoned! Why the hell are they putting this much effort into it?"

"I don't understand it, either." Arnold agreed with a sigh, shaking his head. "Whatever it is, I'm not sure we'll figure it out right now. Come on, we'd better keep exploring."

Nodding, Helga put it back, and made a beeline to a bulletin board. There was a map of the subway, which she took as well and looked over. This would definitely help them along. Placing it with the map she had of the city, she then crossed over to where a row of payphones were. Six of them, each equipped with a phone book. Knowing the result, she picked one up, holding it to her hear. Much less to her surprise, it didn't work. There was no dial tone. It was broken. Even hitting the hang up button didn't garner a response. It was just like a toy.

Still, with no other option, she tested them all, and resulted the same way. No dial tone or sound whatsoever. All the receivers replaced, she sighed, feeling hopeless.

Suddenly, one of the phones rang, which made the two of them jump in shock. Pay phones didn't ring, and especially not _broken_ pay phones. Helga instinctively grabbed Arnold's hand, a little scared at the moment, and looking for leverage. Judging by the ringing, she could see it was coming from the second pay phone on the left. It continued to ring, even after a third, and never stopped. As if insisting for her to pick up, threatening never to stop if she didn't.

The morbid curiosity within her was getting the better of her fear, and she slowly approached it, not letting go of Arnold's hand. With her free hand, Helga then slowly and tentatively took the receiver, lifting it off the hook and holding it to her ear.

"...Hello?"

Interference was heard on the other line, a little distorted. Her eyes widened when she then heard a disturbing, inhuman voice on the other line. The voice made creepy, horrific, agonizing, angry and incoherent noises, terrifying her. Making her feel as if she were in a dark room, all alone, with that phone relaying the disturbing voice of whatever the hell was on the other line.

"_-orn..._" The voice suddenly said, albeit still incoherent, and thanks to the interference.

"...What?" Helga spoke into the receiver, as if thinking that would garner an answer.

"_THORN..._" The creepy voice said amongst the interference.

The line then went dead, as if nothing had happened. Helga stood there for a good minute, her hand shaking a bit, unable to comprehend what had just happened. It was no prank call, that was for sure. Arnold squeezed her hand then, bringing her back to reality. She hung the phone back up, trying to get over the mild scare that was given. Not to mention, wondering what the voice meant when it said "Thorn".

"Helga? Helga, are you okay?" Arnold asked softly.

"I'm fine." Helga responded curtly, but wasn't letting go of his hand. "Not like I can't handle some weird disturbing message. The hell did that thing mean by thorn?"

Arnold gave a shrug, having no explanation for it either. "I'm not sure, Helga. Whatever that was about...I'll bet was maybe just messing with us. I couldn't say. ...Come on, we should keep going. I have a really bad feeling about this place, a lot more than I anticipated."

"You're telling me." Helga agreed. "Come on, let's go that way first. It leads to some rooms we could explore, maybe find some weapons."

Nodding, Arnold walked along in the direction she had indicated, which was to their left, going to the left corridor. Helga still held onto his hand, which he didn't mind, and carried the steel pipe tightly in his other hand.

They came to a long hallway, that was a T-junction. Two doors leading to a men's bathroom and women's bathroom were on the wall on the left, and a few other doors lined the right side of the wall further down.

Hesitating, the two of them entered the girl's bathroom. Helga had a remark to make, but now was not the time for that. The bathroom was dismal and desolate, no signs of life. One stall door was closed, from what they could see. And upon knocking on it, there was no response. Nothing was in there. The stalls and toilets were horrendous, even Helga, who was never the kind of girl to be afraid of getting her hands dirty, didn't want to go near them.

A quick look at the men's bathroom garnered the same result. Except for one interesting note. When Helga looked at one of the mirrors, there were read markings on it, done in blood. There were circles, with strange markings within the inner circumference, the middle of the circle completely blank, with the reflection of her face filling it. On top of the circle was a shape vaguely resembling an eye. What _was_ it? What did it mean?

Helga then grabbed her head in pain, groaning loudly in agony as a searing, stabbing pain veered through her head like a horrible migraine. The sound of steel clamouring to the floor was heard and then a pair of hands came to her shoulders, and a worried Arnold asking her if she was all right. The pain continued, making her grit her teeth and clutch her head harder.

"Helga! Helga, what's wrong? Are you all right?" Arnold asked in panic, his grip on her shoulders tightening.

As if seeking comfort for the pain, Helga turned around and grabbed onto him tightly, burying her face into his plaid shirt, groaning in agony and struggle, hoping the pain would stop, or at least falter. Arnold blushed a bit, and brought his arms around her with no hesitation and held her tightly, trying to offer as much comfort as he could.

Helga meanwhile felt the pain in her hand subside, and relished in the warm comfort of her beloved's warm embrace. It was all she had in this place, and she needed it then. This was truly a test of her strength, and Helga knew by no means of uncertainty that she was strong and could face anything. But this city, this place, was truly a test of her will. She knew it, and she knew Arnold knew it too, and if the city could feel, it would also know it.

"Helga? What happened?" Arnold asked in worry, feeling her relax a bit against him. If not for the impending possible dangers and mysteries, and the horror they'd seen so far, he would've revelled in the fact that he could freely hug her without her pushing him away after a few moments. Taking a chance, he stroked her hair gently, which she didn't seem to mind.

"I don't know, I just suddenly had a painful splitting headache, like someone dropped an anvil onto my head or stabbed me through the head." Helga murmured, frowning a bit against him. Eventually she pulled her head back at looked up at him, shuddering a bit. "It happened after I looked at that...weird bloody symbol on the mirror. I have no idea why. It _meant_ something to me somehow, even if I've never seen it before in my life."

"...Weird." Arnold murmured, frowning slightly.

The two embraced a few moments longer, before they slowly pulled away, both with reluctance, and exited the bathroom just as the young picked up the steel pipe yet again. Finding nothing except the strange symbol in the bathroom, they continued down the corridor. A strange, unsettling scuffling sound was heard up ahead.

Readying the steel pipe, Arnold then picked up a stranger sound, which he was sure Helga heard too. Wet smacks, low rumbling, and..._chewing_. From what they could hear, the sound was coming from around the corner on the left side of the T-junction. Whatever it was, the source was causing the radio strapped to Helga's belt to emit static. They feared checking it out and seeing just what the strange noises were, but they felt uneasy about walking away. So they stepped, closer and closer to the end where the corner of the wall curved away, keeping perfectly quiet as possible, trying to stifle their harsh breathing, and with Helga trying to turn down the volume of the radio, which was still indicating a monster was nearby. And whatever monster was there would hear it.

What they saw made them both wish they hadn't investigated. Especially Helga. Who by then was _terrified_, more scared than she'd ever felt in her life. She felt like a vulnerable little girl with no means of attack or defence.

In the corner, much like when they had encountered the straitjacket monster back outside earlier, there was a mangled humanoid corpse on the ground, with bits of limbs, torn from the body, littered around. And devouring the pieces was, what looked like a giant rat. A giant, mutated rat. It was the size of a small dog, with dark black fur that was patched or decayed in some places, rounded ears, and a very long, bloody tail. It had glowing red eyes, a grotesque snout, and fangs dripping with blood, grime, and saliva. Its paws looked more like demonic, decaying claws that could rip off limbs if it wanted to. It reminded Arnold very much of the monster rat from a movie about killer rats that lurked beneath an insane asylum, and that there had been one big motherload rat that was probably as big, if not bigger, than this one.

Helga was trembling visibly, her breath coming out in shallow pants, as she backed away, clutching Arnold's arm tightly, her azure eyes wide as saucers. She was beyond terrified by now. Seeing a regular rat was bad enough and enough to send her into hysterics, but this _giant mutated rat _was horrendous and enough to make her want to scream and run for her life. All of her blood ran cold, everything froze, and she was too scared to move. Too scared to scream.

Now the rat could see them, as well as hear the static emitting from the radio. It dropped onto its haunches and skulked toward them, growling like a mad dog. Arnold, with Helga behind him, backed away slowly, feeling terrified as well, and trying everything he could NOT to antagonize it. Whether or not the rat was intelligent was beyond him, but if it were, it would see that the steel pipe in his hand was an obvious sign of an enemy. But he still hoped with what little optimism he had left, that just maybe it would see that they weren't going to bother it and leave it alone.

But no. The rat advanced on them, just as slowly, like a tiger advancing upon its prey as it moved away. It wanted them to run, it was _daring _them to. The damned, horrific, demonic, glowing red eyes were just egging them to break and run, so that it could run after them, catch them, and become its next meal. The straitjacket monsters were _paper dolls_ compared to this creature.

Helga whimpered and trembled behind him, on the verge of tears, trying to look away from the horrific monster, but was unable to. She wanted to run, to get the hell out of here and away from that thing. But her legs felt like jello, and were only moved thanks to Arnold pushing her back with his walking. She felt death. That death was upon them.

The rat let out a snarl, and raised itself up on its hind legs, ready to lunge for them.

Suddenly, gun shots were heard behind them, and the rat was struck on its exposed open stomach, with blood flying out where it was shot. It screeched like a bat, faltering and then eventually fell to the ground when it was then shot in the head. Dead. With a pool of blood, that was actually green-ish, pooling from it.

Arnold and Helga stared in shock at the now dead mutant rat, before turning around to see where the source of the gun shots came from. Much to their surprise, a young woman in her mid-twenties or so stood there with a gun in her hands. By the uniform of a blue shirt, a utility belt, and black pants with black work shoes, they could now easily see that she was a cop. She had medium-length brown hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and seemed to be fairly undamaged, despite some cuts and scratches and stains of blood and grime on her pants and shirt. Taking a breath, she reloaded her gun with a new magazine of pistols, and looked at the two of them.

"You two okay? I heard the commotion from down the hall, and I saw one of those demon mutant rats about to attack you, so I shot it down for you." The cop said, eyeing the two of them. Despite that she was shorter than the two of them, they felt so much younger than her then.

"...Yeah, we're...we're okay now, I guess." Arnold managed. "I-I'm Arnold, Arnold Shortman. This is Helga Pataki."

Despite her relief at the death of that demonic mutant rat, and seeing another live, sane human being, Helga felt a bit too scared to speak.

"I'm Casana Kusabana. I'm a police officer from Port Hardy, on Vancouver Island." She showed them her badge that she produced from her pocket, and indicated to the patch on the right sleeve of her uniform. I was called here as a favour to a friend, who came here to Hillwood. Or Silent Hillwood as they call it these days." The cop explained, and then held out a second gun to them. "Are either of you handy with a gun? It's good to have a firearm and melee weapon around here."

Finally, Helga took a breath and spoke up, forcing the rat out of her mind. "I can. That'd be me. I've used a gun in target practice before. My foster father was a hunter, so he taught me to use a gun." She took the gun from the cop and inspected it. It was a simple but still definitely effective 3.7 ML handgun. She inserted it through her belt for safe keeping.

"Were you the one who wrote this?" Arnold held up the traffic ticket he'd found earlier. "We found it outside on the street, and since you're a cop..."

"Yes, I did. I've been here for a while, I don't even really know how long. I've left little notes around for people to find." Casana said. "What are you two doing here, anyway?"

"Long story." Helga said, brushing it off. "You said you saw monsters around here? Are there really more of them around here?"

Casana nodded, shaking her head. "They're everywhere. You never know what you're going to find here. The phones don't work, and I can't call for backup. My suspicions were right, there really is something wrong with this place. And this fog hasn't let up at all. I've been investigating for a while, and I can't quite find any answers. Basically, this city is fucked up."

Both Helga and Arnold gave nods of agreement at that.

"Anyway, you two should get out of here. I'm going to try to find my friend, or at least find a way to get back up." The brunette then said, now turning away to go.

"Wait! Stay with us, we could use an extra hand." Helga told her.

"I'd only slow you down." Casana shook her head. Both of them were unsure if she meant it that way, or was silently referring to the fact THEY would slow HER down instead. "Don't worry about me, I'm a cop. I'll be fine. Listen, I'm going to investigate along Vine Street. Why don't we meet at the Mayor's Office? I was headed there. Can you find that?"

"That's...where we were going, too." Arnold nodded. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. You two have your own agenda, and I don't want to deter you from it. Just be careful. You should be able to find amnution around if you need it. We'll meet at the Mayor's Office." Casana re-holstered her own gun. "Be careful, you two."

They watched as the cop retreated down the hall in a brisk jog, and although relieved that they found another human being here, especially one experienced in combat, they couldn't help but feel a lingering fear at her words. Monsters were definitely infesting this city under some supernatural force. And it looked to be getting only much harder from here on.


	4. Descent into Hell

**More terror in Silent...not Hill. XD**

**Okay, let's talk about the monsters again. :D The mutated rat, which will be called **_**Demon Rat**_**...yeah, I know, original title, is obviously a representation of Helga's fear of rats. And how she views them to be dangerous, disgusting scum that are out to get her. So there you go! I created it myself. X3**

**A certain part of this was inspired by assjoe (Always Straight Sober Joe), who created the fanmade point-and-click Silent Hill game "Silent Hill: Room 304", if you have played the game or read one of my recent dA journals...you'll know what I mean.**

**Oh yes...and today, is our first descent into the Otherworld! :D**

XXX

It was time to explore the Subway. And hopefully be more prepared for any other possible monsters that they would face. By now, Arnold realized that this city was definitely infested with horrid monsters. How it was possible, he didn't even know, and surely the people who had come before him and Helga didn't know. But the rumours were true. There were monsters in the city. Actual monsters.

At least they did meet with another human being, and also acquired a firearm, which would be a big help when they wouldn't want a monster to get too close to them. Having the option of a melee weapon and a firearm was going to help for sure.

Now the two were exploring the subway, and came to platform four. A subway car sat there as well, with a few of its doors open. On the platform across the tracks, which was platform five, according to the map Helga had acquired, was another subway car.

"Hmm. If we need to get across the tracks, we could probably make our way through by going into the subway car, onto the split support, and into the other side without going on the tracks." Helga suggested. "It's worth a try."

"We can do that if we have to." Arnold nodded. "It would help us explore as much of this place as we can."

Helga nodded, and then spotted a small red box on the floor. She knelt down to inspect it, coming to find that it was handgun bullets. She grinned and pocketed it, glad to have spares if she ended up using all the bullets already in her gun, which she checked, was full with six bullets.

Before heading onto the tracks, Arnold spotted a door at the end of the platform next to where the tunnel began. Curious, he tried the doorknob, but found that it only turned over and over in his hand. It wasn't locked, the lock was broken. Try as he may, he couldn't open it.

"The lock is broken. I can't open it." He sighed, and jiggled it a bit.

"Great! Prying it or trying to break it down might be pointless." Helga took the map out of her pocket, along with a pen, and scribbled an "X" along the doorway spot on the map to indicate that they couldn't go in that room. "It was just a storeroom, apparently. Guess nothing useful is in there."

"I suppose not." Arnold sighed, and looked down at the floor. He saw a piece of paper, probably ripped from a notebook, he wasn't sure, and found some more writing on it. It was different handwriting than the previous written pieces he'd seen, so it had to have been written by someone else. Curious, he picked it up and read it.

_**There's something wrong with this place. We have to get out of here as quick as we can. But we can't leave yet. Not without tying the loose ends. I can't believe we have to**_

The rest of it was cut off, puzzling Arnold. He could see now that the bottom half of the note was ripped off, letting the sentence hang.

"What's that, Arnold?" Helga enquired.

Before Arnold could answer, the static of the radio suddenly went off, now known to them as a warning for detecting monsters. He then saw something at the corner of his eye emerging from the tunnel down on the tracks, not to mention disturbing scuffling noises. Something climbed up onto the platform, and scuffled toward them in a weird way. The creature had three legs, but Arnold noticed that the two legs were fused together. It was humanoid, with two human torsos, heads, arms, and one leg each, with their other legs fused together. Both were fused together from the feet up to their waists.

The left creature seemed to take the form of a tall, muscular male, with a grotesque, fleshy, muscular chest and stomach and strong arms. Its left forearm was strange, since it ended long and thin, almost like a tail, or a whip. The face was strange and twisted, having no visible eyes, and a tumour that resembled an angular chin.

The creature on the right was smaller, shorter, and took on the form of a female, with grotesque flesh as well in the form of breasts, a stomach, and hips. It had a strange-shaped head, and no visible features, except for a gaping hole that might have served for a mouth.

"What the hell is that thing?" Helga uttered, now aiming her gun at it.

"I don't know!" Arnold backed Helga away in panic. "But it looks dangerous, so we should-"

He was cut off when the male side let out a strange grunt and threw its whip arm back and slashed it at Arnold, slapping his skin painfully and drawing blood on his arm. He winced in pain and nearly doubled over from the intense, stinging pain.

"Stand back!" Helga stepped forward past him and fired her gun at the fused creature. Blood spewed from it, and the female side let out an agonizing cry while the male side grunted in pain. A few more shots and it fell down to the floor, convulsing weakly. She went over to it and promptly stomped on their spines, effectively finishing them off. "Jesus...that thing is disturbing as hell." Shaking her head, she reloaded her gun with three bullets to replace the ones she had fired, grinning at the satisfactory clicking noise that sounded as she did so.

Arnold blinked, and held his head for a moment, feeling a mild headache coming on as he stared at the fallen corpse of the recent monster that attacked him. He shook his head and turned back to Helga. "I have no idea what that thing was...I guess there's really all kinds of monsters here in this city. Who knows what else is out there, probably stronger, bigger and more dangerous monsters, I bet." He rubbed the wound on his arm, seeing that it was indeed bleeding a bit, but thankfully it was nothing serious.

"Like a video game, doi." Helga rolled her eyes. "Anyway, come on, let's explore that subway car. Maybe we'll find something. ...You okay?" She looked at him in genuine concern.

Arnold felt a little flutter to his heart at how she seemed to be letting down her walls for the sake of the situation. "I'm okay, Helga. It does sting and it's bleeding just a bit, but it's nothing serious at all. I'll be fine."

"Good. Can't have you dying on me. ...Hmm, maybe we'll find a First Aid kit in the turnstile office or somewhere, we'll have to keep an eye out for one."

Nodding, Arnold led the way down the platform to reach the subway car, trying to ignore the pain in his arm. Two doors down from the end of the car were open enough that they could go through. Inside the car, it was messy and dirty in some places, as well as rusted along the metal bars. From what they could see, nothing much was in here.

Arnold noticed that the door connecting to the next car was open slightly. He went over to it, and attempted to slide it open the rest of the way. It barely budged.

"Pry it with the steel pipe." Helga suggested as she came up from behind him.

"Hmmm..." Arnold looked at the steel pipe he was holding, and then at the door, deciding to try Helga's suggestion. He wedged the pipe into the gap, which was a tight fit, but it went through. Using as much force as he could, he pried the door open further with the pipe with some struggle.

It didn't open all the way, but enough to allow them to go through.

The next car, for some strange reason, had mannequin parts all over the place. Arms, legs, torsos, but no heads.

"Weird." Helga muttered, shaking her head. "Must've been reject pieces that were dumped here or something. But why would they dump mannequin bits in a subway car? Wouldn't it be easier to dispose of them in a dumpster?"

"Nothing in this place is making sense." Arnold said, looking around the car. "I guess this is only adding to that."

"Can't argue with that one." Helga agreed. "Must be a subtle way of telling us that it'll only get weirder from here on in."

They continued exploring the subway car, finding it just as empty as the last one, aside from the scattered mannequin parts. This one was bare, except for a few handles on the hold bar that had fallen down. Nothing was in this one, so they went to the door connecting to the next car. That door was open, so they just went through without any problem.

A piece of paper sat on one of the seats, which this time Helga inspected. It was another poem.

_**Lost in the endless tunnels of life**_

_**I come to the end**_

_**It ends in the fires of Hell**_

_**They always said God was my friend**_

"...Okay..." Helga shrugged and tucked the poem away, not quite sure what to make of it. It had the same handwriting as the previous poem Arnold had found earlier. _Makes about as much sense as the last one. Oh well, guess I'll never understand morbid poetry._

Arnold noticed something else on another seat. It was a small brown bottle, with a green cross on it, much like the First Aid symbol. Picking it up, he read the label and saw that it was simply labelled as a health drink. No ingredients, not expiry date, no directions, nothing. It was just a health drink. But what did it do? Was it even good to drink?

"What the hell is that?" Helga asked, now coming over to him.

"A health drink. That's all the label says." Arnold frowned, turning it around and turning it over. When he shook it, he found that it was full. "Looks like it wasn't even opened."

"Eww. You probably don't even know where it's been!" Helga made a face. "Put it back. Food or drink found here in Silent _Hell_wood probably would just kill you."

"Hold on." Arnold took off the cap, and sniffed it. The drink smelled like sweet fruit juice, like fruit punch. "...Hmm...it smells right." Very hesitantly, he took a small, tentative sip. "...Hey, it tastes like fruit juice. Very fresh, too."

"...Seriously?" Helga raised one side of her eyebrow. She held her hand out. "Gimme. I want to try it." When Arnold handed it to her, she sniffed it, frowned in confusion, and then tasted it. "Fruit juice? It tastes like Yahoo soda to me."

"Huh?" Arnold took it back, taking another sip. "...It tastes like fruit juice, I'm not kidding."

"Please." Helga took it back, taking another sip. "...It still tastes like Yahoo soda. That whip to your arm must've rattled your brain, Football Head."

"...Well, either way, at least it tastes good." Arnold then blinked as he moved his arm again. "...Hey, my arm doesn't hurt anymore. The pain just subsided a lot in the past few seconds."

"Guess that's why it's called a health drink." Helga shrugged. "Save some for later. Let's keep moving."

Arnold nodded again, putting the health drink into his pocket, and they continued their exploration of the subway cars. They couldn't find anything in the last few cars, at least not until the car that came before the engine. Much to their surprise, there was a small silver key hanging from a wire. Helga took it, seeing that it read _**Security Office**_ along its head.

"Well, we've got a key to the security office." She took the map to check and see where it was. "Hmmm...it's upstairs, not far from the turnstile. But it's over near platforms one and two. Maybe we should head there next, see if we can find something."

"Good idea." Arnold agreed. "Let's just check the engine for a minute."

Helga nodded, and followed him through the door, which was easily opened, to the engine. That car was a little tight for them both, since Helga was now pressed up against him a bit too close. Not that she minded, aside from it making her blush.

"Sorry Helga." Arnold tried to move backward to give her some room, but he only backed up against the frontal window, barely even going back a single step. He blushed as well at their close proximity.

"Okay, this isn't working." Helga reluctantly pulled back from him, going to the doorway. "Check the control panel. Maybe we can move the cars to get back to platforms one or two."

Arnold looked down at the panel, seeing that a single green button was glowing. He knew nothing about engineering a subway car, but he was good with wiring and setting up electronics. Maybe if he had to, he could try to wire the car. Hesitating, he pushed the button.

The subway car then jerked, and the humming roar of the engine came to life, and before they could gather their balance, the engine car sped forward into the tunnel. Helga yelped and fell back into the other car behind her, whilst Arnold fell forward across the engine car and into the other car as well.

On top of Helga.

As the subway sped through the tunnel at an alarming speed, Helga looked up in shock at Arnold as she breathed heavily beneath him. It wasn't like their previous accidents of bumping into each other when they would turn a corner. Sure, they would fall down, but away from one another. This however, was worse. Well, inwardly amazing, but outwardly worse. Thankfully the steel pipe landed on the side of her, not once making contact with her, so they hadn't really gotten hurt.

Arnold blushed, looking down at her with a surprised, stunned expression. He wanted to get up and move, but he just couldn't. Hell, he was beginning to forget that they were in the middle of a horrific, abandoned, messed up city infested with terrible, disturbing monsters. And in the middle of a runaway subway!

They both blushed, their eyes locking, and finding it hard to properly breathe. Oh, how Helga wished she could just gather the courage to pull those trembling lips down onto her own and-

That was when the subway train abruptly stopped, though not as jerky as when it started moving, but definitely enough to make them snap out of their trance and realize the subway train had stopped. Arnold managed to get up, and held a hand for Helga to take. She slowly took it, and he helped her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Arnold asked in concern.

Helga rubbed her head a bit, nodding. "Yeah, fine. Nice going, Football Head."

"Sorry, Helga." He said, looking away. "I guess I should have known better, and I'm sorry for falling on you like that."

"You should be." The young woman pushed passed him, blushing a bit, and went over to the nearest doors, which parted open to let them through. This indicated the electronics of the train still worked.

Arnold picked up the steel pipe off the floor and followed her out. The subway train had ended up at platform two. On a bench across from the tracks, Helga spotted a box of handgun bullets, and another health drink.

"Gonna have to find a bag for some of these things." Helga remarked.

"Maybe we'll find one along the way, or in the security office." Arnold said, and noticed some writing on the wall. "Whoa!"

On the white-brick wall, was a message written in blood. It was dry and crusted, indicating it had been done a longer time ago. The message read: _**Haunt and roam as they wander. Enemies of the Darkness, beware.**_

"_Haunt and roam as they wander. Enemies of the Darkness, beware._" Helga read out loud, frowning a little. "What the hell does that mean? It sounds like some cryptic, creepy, haunting message about ghosts."

"I'm not sure I want to stick around long enough to find out." Arnold said, shuddering a bit. He was beginning to see that writings like this shouldn't be taken lightly. Nothing should be taken lightly.

"So monsters _and_ ghosts?" Helga rolled her eyes, despite that she didn't find it to be too impossible, considering that ghosts were more plausible than monsters. She just wondered if they actually would see ghosts, or some kind of a haunting apparition, since spirits usually came off as such, that you couldn't see.

Arnold led the way to the stairs leading up to the upper floor away from the subway platforms, with Helga following close behind him. Almost immediately, much to their dismay, they came across one of those monstrous, mutated demon rat monsters. It charged toward them on all fours, before it stood on its hind legs and growled menacingly, like a hungry carnivore. Helga screeched and whipped out her gun faster than she could comprehend and started aimlessly shooting at it, backing away all the while so that the monster wouldn't get near her, whimpering and crying out all the while. She couldn't help herself. Rats were bad enough, but _these _rats were only the kind of rats you'd see in movies or in your nightmares.

After wasting five bullets, since she was shooting rather aimlessly, the rat convulsed and then fell to the floor in a puddle of blood. It then got back up again, growling madly, but Arnold whacked it with the steel pipe, then kicked it to ensure it was dead, holding the steel pipe in a ready stance just in case. Helga leaned against a support pillar, breathing heavily and closing her eyes, trying to get over the immense terror and disgust.

"_PLEASE_ tell me that thing didn't re-spawn!" Helga groaned.

"I hope not...but we did see a few other of those straitjacket monsters, I guess there's more than one of _those_ around too." Arnold said, and noticed Helga cringe at that. "Sorry Helga, I didn't meant to..."

"I know, I know, just being realistic about this place." Helga waved it off. She took the subway map out of her pocket, looking it over. "Okay, so our security office is down this way to our left, near the turnstile. If they've got some security cameras set up, maybe we can search around the areas for monsters, or if "

"Good idea! I think we should try that." Arnold agreed, sounding a little more uplifted. Not exactly happy, but definitely saw hope, which helped. "Let's go, we can probably make it if we hurry, before the monsters find us around this part."

"No need to tell me twice." Helga put the map away. "Let's move!"

The two of them jogged briskly down to the turnstile, and finally came to a door that was had _**Security**_ written on the door. Helga took the key, and unlocked the door, opening it slowly. Its hinges creaked noisily from disuse, but the door opened just fine. Inside the room, the light was on, and it was fairly large. One side of the room consisted of a desk, with papers, documents, photos and other office paraphernalia scattered about. On the other side of the room, was a row of small monitors, each depicting different platforms and levels of the subway station.

"Looks more like they just got up and left." Helga shrugged. "Not really all that abandoned."

A health drink was on the desk, alongside a First Aid kit, and a messenger bag. On the bag, was a piece of worn paper with some writing on it that was still legible.

_**I've made it this far, but can go no further. This will be for those who follow. Know that some of the creatures are attracted to the light. Keep it off when you go past them. Especially when they are in numbers.**_

_**August 7**_

Curiously, Helga peeked into the bag, and saw that it contained a combat knife, and a flashlight. It was small, a good size to fit in your pocket, and it was a swivel head model. She inspected it, and handed it to Arnold, along with the knife.

"Here, Football Head. You can take 'em." She said casually.

Arnold looked at the flashlight and knife, then at her, blinking. He blushed a bit. "Thanks, Helga. ...You didn't have to."

"Arnold, you're the one handling the melee weapons. And because you have a front pocket you can put the flashlight in so I won't have to hold it and waste one hand." Helga shrugged. She took the bag, placing it over her shoulder, and putting the health drinks and First Aid kit inside.

"...True." Arnold agreed, and tested the flashlight, turning it on. It still worked just fine, and was still strong. He placed it in his front pocket to be used later if they were going to come across dark places or dark rooms. But he wondered just what the note meant by how some creatures were attracted to the light. What creatures would they be? How would they know when they found them?

Shaking his head, he went and joined Helga at the security camera monitors as he inserted the knife through his belt. Not much was going on from the monitors, aside from the occasional monster that would appear on screen in the particular area they were wandering. The monitors were black and white, obviously in hidden spots that most likely weren't easily seen by civilians. A few of them were nothing but flickering static, indicating that their cameras weren't working.

Helga blinked, now seeing something moving along one of the screens. She couldn't quite make it out, since it was at an angle and a distance. Along platform three, where they hadn't been yet. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know." Arnold murmured, frowning. "We should keep watching, maybe we'll get a closer look at it."

The two kept their eyes glued to the monitor, trying to keep an eye on the nondescript thing on the monitor as it moved around, as if it were..._floating_. Which was odd. What was it?

Now on the monitor, the screen flickered a bit and turned to static for a brief moment before returning to normal.

"Huh? What the hell?" Helga blinked.

The monitor flickered again, a few more times, before the static remained. Helga groaned, about to give up and suggest they get out of here-

All of a sudden, the screen came back into focus and plastered right at the monitor close up from the neck up, was the face of a woman. Her eyes were wide and angry, her mouth was open, with a dark substance (probably blood) surrounding her lips, and with scars and gashes all along her face. Her hair was long and dark, falling in light waves along her shoulders, though it was hard to tell how long it was. She seemed to be angrily screaming at the camera angrily, and if this had been in a horror movie, it would have been considered a jump scare.

"HOLY-!" Helga screamed in startled fright, jumping into Arnold's arms. "SON OF A-!"

"Shit...who was the woman?" Arnold blinked in shock.

Normally, Helga would've found it cute that Arnold would actually curse, but now was not the time to think about that. She breathed heavily, her hands clasped tightly around his neck, staring at the now blank, black screen with "DATA CORRUPTED" written in red letters on it.

"I-I don't want to find out! Arnold, we have to get out of here and I mean NOW."

"You're right, Helga. We should leave."

The two barely took note of the fact that Arnold was now holding Helga bridal style after that horrific "jump scare" moment, both of them breathing hard. They finally looked at each other, wide-eyed, and panting. He then slowly and gently set her down, holding her steady.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just startled." Helga waved it off. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

Arnold nodded, and opened the door of the office, letting her leave the room first. He followed out after her, shutting the door behind him. Helga took out the map to find where the exit was on the street that they wanted to head to.

"Okay, I know where the exit is that we're looking for. We'll have to go through the Bermuda street line, onto platform seven, and then ascend from there and exit from there." She said.

"That shouldn't be a problem, let's go." But then Arnold realized something. "Uh-oh. We'll need a token or a commuter ticket to go through."

"Shit. You're right." Helga tucked the map away into the bag, along with the city map. "Maybe we can look around for one that someone dropped."

The lighting was low up ahead, so Arnold turned on the flashlight as they explored the level, curious as to what they would find, and hoping they would spot a token or a commuter ticket. Helga found another newspaper stand, and once again, another paper that was of today's date. It confused the hell out of her, but she waved it off for now.

Arnold then found more writing on a wall, also written in blood. It read: _**Beware the impending Darkness. Turn back if you dare.**_

What did that mean?

"This place just loves to fuck with our minds, I know it." Helga groaned upon reading the message.

Arnold opened his mouth to agree with her, but a strange noise in the distance cut him off. It was far off, but still distinct, and seemed to be coming from above. A long, shrill warble, like a warning.

"What is that noise?" Helga wondered, looking around frantically and whipping out her gun, pointing it around nervously.

"An air raid siren!" Arnold realized, gripping the steel pipe tighter as he too looked around nervously. "But what is setting it off?"

"How the hell should I know, since when do air raid sirens go off for now reason! This makes no damn sense!"

But suddenly, they got their answer. Around them, the walls and the floor began peeling and fading away, the walls were coated and dripped with blood and rust. The floor became steel grating, and all around them it was growing dark, within the walls were some industrial fans, rotating fast, with intense heat coming from them. Among that, grotesque vines that resembled tentacles with horrendous leaves grew around the place as well. Both Arnold and Helga watched in terror as this horrific transition was occurring, short gasps escaping them as their wide, scared eyes wandered the now hellish, industrial subway station.

"What the hell? What is happening?" Helga cried, sounding more frightened than she'd wanted.

"I wish I knew!" Arnold responded, just as scared as she was.


	5. Pendulum

**Ta-da! Here is the next instalment in our Silent Hill-esque adventure!**

**The last monster we encountered, is another one I created. :D This one is called the "Joiner", since they are pretty much joined at the hip.**

**Symbolism: The general symbolism for the monster is that they represent Arnold's parents, Miles and Stella. The male side with the whip-arm, and the female side with the poison, indicating Stella's doctoral ability to create medicine and serum. The fact they are joined together is more to add to the disturbing value of the monster, but also that they are close, but still so far apart. How it's them, but not them, and that Arnold longs to find them both. In a sense, it represents Helga as well, the grotesque and disturbing aspect of the monster symbolizes how she never had a real family before and too, longs for a mother and father figure.**

**The Schism monster comes from Silent Hill Homecoming. ...And I freaking HATE those fuckers! Them, and the Needlers are the worst. DX One of the worst monsters I have dealt with in the game. I had to fight them (the Schisms when you first encounter them) off in the police station bathroom stall! But their symbolism works for this story, and well, I want to pay further to beating the shit out of them. X3 I'll admit their designs are disturbing and pretty gross, and their symbolism works, but DAMN, they're annoying as hell to beat.**

XXX

"What the hell happened? Why is everything so...so...weird and disturbing? What the hell is going on?" Helga cried, almost on the verge of hysteria, as she pointed her gun around. Her hands were trembling, her eyes wide, her breath came out in shallow, quick gasps.

"I don't know, something...something really weird happened. S-So if you see it too, then I guess we're not crazy..." Arnold's voice shook with fear as he stared wide-eyed at the bloody substance. It was spreading, the floor was becoming steel grating, the walls becoming rusted, bloody, some parts even with pulsating parts that seemed to resemble bloodied, grotesque flesh.

Along with the hellish, strange atmospheric transition, strange plants that resembled vines and grotesque flowers and other types of plants grew around the subway, spreading everywhere.

Helga then let out an agonized cry as a throbbing pain came to her head, almost like a migraine. The gun fell from her hand, landing on the steel grating, and she collapsed to her knees, holding her head and practically screaming by now. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she could see, no..._feel_. Burning. Fire. She could feel something burning. Even if before was simply room temperature, if you could call it that. She felt as if she were put in an oven now. But she didn't sweat, which was odd, she sure felt she needed to! She just _felt_ it.

Following the burning, she heard screaming. Feminine screams. The screams of a woman trying not to scream, but the pain was far too great and strong to hold back at all. Burning pain. It was not her own screaming, that much she knew, but there was something about the screaming that just-

Her head throbbed harder, and the screams and fire faded, as if never there, but the headache was still there. It was then she registered that Arnold was kneeling down beside her and bringing his arms around her, trying to comfort her. The pain was slowly fading, and Helga groaned softly, trying to relax from it.

"Helga...Helga, are you okay?" Arnold asked softly, rubbing her back in small circles and holding her close, looking at her with scared concern. "You're getting the headache again..."

"I-I know! I know!" Helga cringed, as the pain throbbed again, but then dissipated as quick as it came. "I don't know why I'm getting these headaches sometimes! Come on. Let's just get the fuck out of here. This place is giving me the fucking creeps."

"Okay." Arnold carefully helped her stand up, and then bent down to pick the steel pipe back up. He then turned on the flashlight, illuminating a portion of the area with it's bright, round light.

Much to his dismay, he saw that the turnstile was now rusted solid, and wouldn't even move. He tried, with his hands and the steel pipe. Helga did as well, but she too had no such luck. They had to find another way to get through. As they looked around the level to try to find a way around, which sadly there was none. That was also attributed to the fact that in this strange, delusional nightmarish atmosphere, nothing much was as familiar as before. It was still the subway station, they knew it, but it just didn't seem like it, and not just because it looked different.

So, without much of an option, they descended back down to the subway platform. Their only choice now, was to make their way to platform seven along the tracks, as much as they hated to do that. Not to mention the fear of being run over by a runaway subway. They went over to the ledge, peering down at the tracks. Much to their horror, the tracks now had gaps, which they could see through, and down below was the bright orange-red-yellow glow of what appeared to be molten lava.

"Shit...what IS this? ! A subway station or a volcano? !" Helga groaned.

"I wish I knew. Everything seems so...industrial." Arnold stood back up, looking around the tunnel. "C'mon, Helga. We'd better go fast."

Helga nodded, holding her handgun tightly in one hand in case she would need it, as she followed alongside him down the tunnel. There was a door on the left side against the wall, which Arnold tried, and found that it also had a broken lock. Giving up on that door, they continued down the tunnel. It still was a concrete wall tunnel, all that changed were the small gaps on the tracks that exposed the underside, with all the molten lava, and the blood and rust along the walls. Strange noises were heard along the way, some distinct and others were more hollow and distant. The flashlight Arnold had in his front pocket lit the way a few feet ahead of them, even with the lava below, there wasn't much light. They stepped with caution, but at a quick pace given their desire to get out of there, as well as their fear that a subway train could come speeding through, behind or in front of them, at any given moment.

As they went further into the tunnel, they could see a light at the end, which was proximately up to nearly a hundred yards away. A little further and they would hopefully see the subway platforms on either side. Relief flooded to their minds, but it was only minimal. Especially since they heard the loud, unmistakable sound of one of the demonic, mutated rats. In fact, the glowing red eyes were then seen a few feet away up ahead as the beam of the flashlight came closer to it. Helga let out a terrified screech, which echoed through the tunnel and prepared to fire at it, but Arnold held a hand for her to stop and rushed toward it. The monster rat turned its attention to Arnold as he approached it, and stood on its hind legs as it prepared to lunge a bite. He smacked it with the steel pipe, managing to stun it. But before he could get another hit in, the rat lunged and bit at his ankle.

"AGH!" Arnold yelled out in pain, trying to shake it off his ankle and bringing the steel pipe down onto its head.

Helga let out an angered yet terrified yell at the rat, feeling her blood boil and override the fear, furious that it would DARE attack her beloved. She fired two shots at it in order to weaken it and get it off him. It screeched and let go, now very unbalanced as blood splattered from the gunshot wounds. Arnold took this opportunity to strike it again a few more times, before it fell to the ground. It then twitched a few times, but Arnold stomped on its side, cracking its bones as well as effectively silencing it as it let out one last strangled, agonized cry before going still.

"...Thanks, Helga." Arnold uttered in relief, wiping sweat that had formed at his forehead, and glancing down at his ankle to see the damage. His jeans were a bit ripped, and there were bite marks through his socks, that bled a little, but he would be fine.

"You did most of the work, no need to thank me." Helga reached into the bag to give him the rest of the first Health Drink they had found. "Take this, you don't know where that..._thing_ has been."

He drank down the rest of it, and tossed the bottle aside, not even really caring where it ended up. Already the pain subsided, and he made a mental note to wash the wound later. If they could find a clean bathroom, of course.

"...You okay?" She asked, walking over to him and looking at him with genuine concern.

"I'll be fine, don't worry. It's just bleeding a bit, but nothing serious." Arnold assured her.

"...Still, thanks." Helga placed her hand on his shoulder, resisting the urge to hug him.

"No problem. I've got your back, Helga. I promise."

"...I've got your back, too. But don't flatter yourself, Football Head. I'm not that heartless, not like I want you to die in here. Besides, not exactly keen on the idea of wandering through this place all alone."

Arnold just smiled knowingly. "Whatever you say, Helga."

Helga blushed a bit, looking away. As much as she didn't outwardly admit it, he knew her too well.

The two of them continued through the tunnel, eager to get to the end of it and get out of this hellish subway station. But as they approached the end of the tunnel, now about twenty feet away, they had frozen upon hearing the dreadful sound of what they now discovered to be a subway. Whether it was coming from behind, or from ahead was something they couldn't distinguish at the moment since it was so far away, but loud enough that they could hear the train speeding down the tracks and the E-flat whistling.

Either way it was coming, they just knew that if they didn't get off the tracks soon, they would be killed.

"Run, hurry!" Arnold shouted, grabbing her hand with his free one and beelining toward the platform.

"I know I know, go!" Helga hurried behind him, clutching his hand in return.

A bright light shone from behind them, now establishing that the train was indeed coming from behind them. How it was moving, or who was driving it, they didn't know, nor did they care. All that mattered was getting OFF the tracks.

Quickly, they emerged from the tunnel and out to the platforms. Platform seven was on their left, so Arnold climbed up onto it fast, and reached down to pull Helga up. The train was getting closer, so he knew he had to move fast. The light from the engine was getting closer, and he managed to pull Helga up onto the platform JUST as the train roared out of the tunnel and sped by with no sign of slowing down. If she had been on the tracks seconds sooner, she would have been run over in an instant and he possibly would have been pulled down with her, too.

Arnold held Helga to him tightly as they sat on the grated flooring platform near the edge, waiting for the subway to keep going and clear the tracks. She was breathing hard, clearly scared that she had nearly been just moments from being run over. He stroked her hair, kissing her head and refusing to let go of her.

"You all right, Helga?" He managed, for lack of anything better to say.

"Me? I laugh at danger!" She replied, clutching to him tighter than she realized. A mild blush tinted her cheeks, and wondered why he was kissing her like that. _Probably just a little TOO relieved that he saved me. Might've kissed me on the mouth if my head was raised. ...Hmm...maybe I'll make a point to do that next time he rescues me from a certain untimely death...Oh I'd better stop, what the hell am I thinking? This is no time for that. Ugh. I'll plot to kiss him later when we're not running for our lives from monsters._

"Me too. But I'll laugh later once we get out of here." Arnold said, and stood up as he helped her to her feet. "We're on platform seven, so we should be able to finally get out of here."

Helga nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."

They quickly explored the platform first, to see if they could find anything of interest. Helga noticed a vending machine with its light still in, still seeming to be working. The ply glass was cracked to the point of uselessness, so she jammed the gun barrel against it, effectively shattering it. There were three Health Drinks in the machine, so she took those and put them in the bag. Also in there was a single can of Yahoo soda. Curious, she took the can, and found it to be empty. At least she thought it was, because there was a small clanging noise, indicating that there was something inside.

Opening the tab, she flipped it upside down and shook it onto her open hand. A small gold-coloured key fell onto her hand. Where it led to, and what it unlocked, she had no idea, but put it in her pocket anyway, figuring it unlocked something useful later on. Helga checked the map then, seeing that there was a door at the end of the platform. It was a storage room, it seemed. Another door was inside it, leading to a utility room.

Going to the door, with Arnold following, she tried the door. It was unlocked, so they went into the dimly lit room. There was a box of bullets for her gun, which she took and pocketed.

A piece of paper was sitting on a crate, which Arnold picked up to read, using the light from his flashlight.

_**Those strange monsters, I don't even know what to make of them. Their heads are just grotesque and disgusting, it's so hard to look at. Like deformed female genitalia, and something like a pendulum. You could tell it from the way they stand still, idling even, and the ends of their heads just slowly swing back and forth...back and forth, almost mockingly. Taunting me. Luckily, the best way to deal with them is with a firearm at a good distance. But if I had to get close to them, I'd need something quick and sharp, and hit them before they could strike me. Running away is usually a better idea, but if I need to face them, may as well take them down.**_

_**June 7**_

It was that cop Casana's handwriting, Arnold recognized it from the ticket she'd left back out on the streets. He wondered briefly if she was all right, and wondered where she had gone and what happened, if she found anything or not. Either way, he let Helga read the note before she stuffed into her bag.

"Man, that monster she described sounds grotesque. Wouldn't want to run into that but then again...I doubt we'll have THAT kind of luck. We can defend against it, at least." Helga remarked, grimacing. She tried the door on the other side of the room, and saw that it was locked. So she took the key out they found earlier, and inserted it into the keyhole, turning it. By the sound of the satisfying click, it was definitely the key to this door.

The utility room had a series of pipes, tanks, a heater, and some other things of the like. The floor was of steel grating, and everything was metallic or rusted. There was also an industrial fan, with an intense heat coming from it, as well as an orange-yellow glow, almost like twilight.

A strange noise sounded, hard to describe, but it did pierce their ears. Arnold and Helga whirled around and came to find a pale pink, humanoid monster emerge from behind the large tank near the other end of the room. It stopped short in its tracks as it stood a few feet away from them. Although humanoid, the illusion was severely shattered at the sight of its head. It was shaped like a pendulum, with a vertical slit coursing through it, resembling a vagina's slit opening. Along the opening were a set of dull-looking, blood-soaked teeth. The creature was hunched over, its pendulum head hanging downward, swinging back and forth. Just as the note said, it not only resembled the ancient torture device, used to elicit a confession from a prisoner as it swung back and forth closer and closer to the body in a torturous fashion, but it must've acted like one somehow. Strangely, the right hand of the creature appeared to be double-jointed, facing backward, while its left hand faced forward. It had sharp claws that looked as if it could tear easily through anything it came into contact with.

Helga swallowed, and decided to make no sudden movements. Why it was just standing idly by, with its head swinging back and forth, and its unseen eyes watching them, she didn't know. But she decided not to chance it. Very slowly, she drew her gun from her belt. The creature turned its body toward her ever so slightly, whether it could see her not was something she also didn't know, but she had a feeling it could either hear or sense her. Or even, to be far-fetched, she thought of the Graboid monsters from _Tremors_, specifically the different Graboid sect monsters from _Tremors 2_, which had the ability to see and sense body heat, just like sensors that could do the same. Maybe that was how it could see them?

Either way, she moved slow, keeping her eye on it. She raised the gun, also very slowly, as it again, made no sudden movement toward her. Taking a chance, she fired at it. Blood spewed from it, and this time the creature yelled out painfully, and lunged at her, but Arnold stepped in and started beating it with the steel pipe. Helga shot two more bullets at it, and this time it keeled over, holding its torso as its grotesque pendulum head swung back and forth a bit faster. Arnold struck it a few more times, as Helga shot one final bullet. The creature fell to the floor, and Helga stomped on it to ensure it would die. Thankfully, it lay still, dead.

"Disgusting." Helga grimaced.

"It's really disturbing all right." Arnold agreed. "Is there anywhere else we could go?"

Helga reloaded her gun, and then checked the map. "Nope. Let's just get out of here, okay?"

Arnold gave a nod, and they left the rooms, going back out onto the subway platform.


	6. Into the Apartment

**I actually wrote part of this on Livestream. XD I'll do it again sometime. ;)**

**Anyway, so a couple new monsters have been introduced in chapter four! The Schism, from Silent Hill: Homecoming, and here, will be the Mandarin from Silent Hill 2. Stay tuned! More monsters are to come! OwO **

**Okay, the Schism does serve purpose in this. I won't give too much away, because I'm going to leave you guys to judge the symbolism. But, I will say that it represents both duality, slow realization, fractured mental state. And also, there's a reason the last one, and this one here, didn't move. ;)**

**Another thing too, while Silent Hill Homecoming was disappointing in some aspects, I do have to give Alex some credit, because he's very resourceful when it comes to solving some problems. Such as trying to find a way to fix up an electronic keypad. Some inspiration comes from that! :D**

**You know the disclaimer! Hey Arnold characters, settings and elements belong to Craig Bartlett. Original characters, monsters, settings and elements belong to me. Silent Hill monsters, elements and even characters (maybe :D), belong to Konami.**

XXX

Upon finally emerging from the subway, they could see that the strange, hellish transition that had occurred following the strange air raid siren earlier had also come to the outside.

The sky was bright orange, almost like the hour of twilight, except it gave off an eerie feel. Like in the subway, the ground was also industrialized steel grating. All the walls of the buildings surrounding them were metal, rusted, or coated with what could only be described as blood. Not just that, but strange-looking vines and plants were growing along some areas, and though weren't prominent, were definitely noticeable. Everything around them seemed to be one be a strange hellish, horrific industrial nightmare.

Moments upon emerging from the subway, it then also began to rain, despite that no clouds were visible in the sky.

Helga stuck her hand out to feel the rain, as if afraid it were acidic. The rain just simply fell around them, like a normal rainy day. It was almost peaceful, but also seemed kind of gloomy. Or rather, it was as if this strange atmosphere couldn't make up its mind. It was terrifying, strange, nerve-wracking, a little gloomy, bright, dark, and above all feeling as if they were in some kind of a wide-awake nightmare.

"What the hell happened?" Helga uttered, now reaching for her gun as she didn't seem to know where to look. "Where did...how did...what was that weird transition! And what did it do to the city? It's like someone painted another texture over it or something!"

Arnold just gulped a bit, wondering just what kind of new horrors were going to await them now. "I wish I knew, Helga. I have no idea what's going on here. Whatever it may be, I have a feeling it's not going to be anything good." Gripping the steel pipe tightly, he took one hesitant step forward. Nothing but the sound of the rain falling was heard, as well as his foot stepping on the steel grating below them.

Helga glanced down, and could see nothing but seemingly endless blackness down below the steel grating. An endless chasm. Whatever it was, and wherever it may have led to, if it did, she definitely did NOT want to find out.

Before they could do anything else, the white noise static emitted from the radio Helga nearly forgot she'd had, still strapped to her belt. By now they realized that it detected the approach of those..._creatures_ they had been encountering since they'd gotten to this cursed city. Bracing themselves, they looked all around them and above to see where the heck the disturbance was coming from. It was accompanied by a strange sound that they couldn't quite comprehend. But whatever it was, it was getting closer.

Feeling the grating below them shake just a bit, that was when Helga looked down and let out a surprised screech. There was something hanging below on the steel grating!

Hanging beneath was a strange monster they couldn't quite identify. It had long, thick arms, with the ends being round with a strange opening that resembled either lips or a vagina, it was hard to tell. The lip arms were hanging onto the grating, and there was a small, feminine body attached as well, seeming to be in a mini-skirt. It was fleshy, and had no identifiable features. Its legs were dangling uselessly below it, and its arms were doing all the work in climbing along the grating kind of like on monkey bars at the park. It came toward them at a brisk pace, and even though it was below the steel grating, and probably not as harmful as the previous monsters they had encountered, they had a good feeling it could do SOMETHING.

"What the hell is that thing?" Helga uttered in disgust.

"I don't think I want to stick around long enough to find out." Arnold grimaced. "C'mon, we can probably outrun it if we hurry."

With no hesitation, they hurried on down the street in hopes of outrunning that strange monster below the steel grating. The air around them felt so heavy and oppressive, not to mention it had a strange smell, despite all the rain around them. It felt cold, but it felt really warm at the same time, only adding to the fact that it seemed this strange hellish atmosphere couldn't make up its own mind as to what it wanted to be or what it was trying to evoke.

Just as they thought they were getting to safety, the radio's static went off again. This time, the fleshy straight-jacket monster was coming at them from a nearby alleyway. Helga wasted no time dealing with this one as she drew out her gun and fired at it. It took three shots before it fell to the ground, and was effectively silenced when Helga stomped on it, _hard_.

"Fuck you, insano." Helga spat, and reloaded her gun. She then took out a map of the city, trying to indicate where they were at this point. "Looks like we're not too far away from the City Hall. But who the hell knows what this..._otherworld_ did to it." She bit her lip, feeling very uncertain about their next course of action.

"Maybe we could explore a little, try to find some other clues or maybe other weapons to help us out." Arnold suggested. "I mean, it would be handy to find more ammunition for your gun."

"Always the logical thinker, Football Head." Helga muttered, trying to sound as sarcastic and snarky as possible, despite that deep down she completely agreed with him. "Guess we can try it your way this time."

"Whatever you say, Helga." Arnold murmured, in no mood to argue.

Tucking the map back into the bag, Helga followed alongside Arnold as they continued to traverse down the street, taking in this strange..._other world_, as Helga now dubbed it. It felt as if they were stuck in some kind a different dimension. Whether or not that was what was happening was beyond them at this point. The fog was no longer blanketing everything around them, which was a good thing, but it didn't quite make them feel any better. Not with this strange, rainy, dark-light twilight going on.

A tourist information shop came into view around one corner, which Arnold tried the door with. The lock was broken, not opening. Helga even stepped over to the big display window and tried to kick it. Didn't budge. She took the steel pipe from Arnold and tried cracking it with it. Nothing. It was shatter-proof, or somehow preventing them entry. Either way, they were unable to get inside.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Helga groaned.

Continuing on, they managed to outrun another couple of the weird monsters that hung below the steel grating, and also a few of the straight jacket monsters. The next building they came to was an apartment building, which looked more like a factory outlet building than an apartment. Whether it always looked that way, or an effect of the strange transition to this other world, neither of them knew.

But as they tried to traverse further, they came to find a nasty surprise.

The road ended. The steel grating just stopped continuing. Nothing but the endless black chasm down below. And hundreds of feet across was the other side, as if something had broken the street in half.

"What the hell?" Helga gasped, both angered and shocked. "How the hell are we going to get across?"

"I don't know." Arnold murmured, frowning a bit in confusion. "We'll have to find another way if we're going to get over there."

"Doi! But how?" Helga tore out the map, pinpointing their location, and also making a scribbled note on the map that they couldn't go any further. "A fucking dead end without it being a wall. Fan-fucking-tastic. Great." She looked over the map, but since the map didn't indicate which roads were impassable, she wasn't sure where they could go next. "Damn it. Looks like the only way we CAN go is through the apartment building, come out through the back, cut through a few roads and shortcut alleyways, and then go to the City Hall from another direction. Guess we'll have to find out and see if we can go there that way."

"If it's our only option, we should try." Arnold agreed, looking to the apartment building warily. "C'mon, Helga. Let's try and get through as quick as we can."

"For once, we agree." Helga muttered, putting the map away. "Hope you have your flashlight handy, I wonder what we'll find in there."

With their course of action finally set, the two of them traversed over to the apartment building, wondering just what new terrors were going to await them.

XXX

Inside the lobby of the apartment, much to their surprise, that was when everything around them seemed to return to normal. The strange hellish _other world_ from before faded away as they came inside. Despite the normalcy, the place was a dump. The walls had folded, falling wallpaper, exposed wiring (some even creating sparks, indicating they were live), cracked drywall, exposed studs, broken floorboards and cracked tiles strewn about. There were newspapers and magazines scattered everywhere, the mail lockers were either shut tight or bent out of shape, and there was water dripping in some places.

No lights were on, either because they weren't working or because there was no power in the building. So Arnold turned on the flashlight so they could see their way around. A piece of paper was laying on the desk nearby, which Arnold went over to and shined the flashlight on to see what it said.

_**Fires burning  
I see the town in flames  
People burn within  
Redemption and punishment is earning**_

_**I close my eyes  
I see nothing  
But feel all the more  
As the flames engulf my cries**_

_**Such pain  
Such horror  
As I stand there  
Burning away all that I can gain**_

_**Sister sister  
For your sins ever so  
Do away your life  
With no more than a blister**_

"Another morbid poem." Arnold murmured, shaking his head.

"Light, please!" Helga called from across the room, where the lockers were. "I want to see if I can find anything in these lockers."

"Sorry, Helga." Arnold took the poem, and then turned around so that the flashlight in his front shirt pocket could shine where Helga was.

"There's a key in this one, locker 103." Helga said, frowning at it. "But I can't get it. The door is wedged in too much and jammed, my finger won't fit through the nook. I'd need tweezers, or even something to break off the door."

"Did you find anything else?" Arnold enquired, walking over to her, making a quick inspection of the other mail lockers.

"No. They're either empty or the doors are jammed." Helga sighed, kicking the wall below the lockers. "Gotta love solving puzzles and looking for keys. I feel like I'm playing a _Legend of Zelda _game, only more gory and full of more monsters...and no Princess to save."

"We should keep looking, then." Arnold smiled a bit at her reference. "Maybe we'll find something we can get the key with."

Before they could move, the static from the radio went off, followed by a strange high noise, something heard from before. The source came from behind them as a broken-down door fell from its frame onto the floor, revealing two of the strange, pink-ish monsters from earlier. One was coming at them aggressively, swinging its head rapidly. The other one behind it was standing idly still, as if hesitating, but watching the events unfold. Helga immediately drew out her gun and fired at the first one that was coming at them aggressively. It read its pendulum head, making a louder screech as it came down toward them again.

Arnold swung the steel pipe at it, but it only served to agitate it as it swung its claw at him, swiping his side. He cried out in pain, clutching his side and trying to back away from it. Helga growled and emptied her gun into the monster before it finally fell down onto the floor.

"Freak of nature!" She spat, stomping on its spine to prevent it from getting back up. It effectively fell limp, dead.

The other monster, the one that was standing idly by, just stood there watching them, not doing anything. Helga reloaded her gun, pointing the barrel toward it. The monster did nothing, just turned its body toward her as if to face her better. She took one step forward, sideways, backward, and still elicited no response from it.

"Huh. This one's probably scared of me." She muttered. Shaking her head, she went over to Arnold, placing her hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah." Arnold managed. "It cut me pretty bad, though. I'll live."

Rolling her eyes, Helga took a health drink from the bag and handed it to him. "At least drink this so you'll feel better."

"Thanks, Helga." He smiled at her a bit, and drank some of it before handing it back to her. "I'll be fine. Let's keep going."

"What about him?" Helga pointed to the monster, who was still standing there, watching them.

"He's not doing anything... I guess we can just keep going." Arnold eyed the grotesque-headed creature warily, biting his lip.

The two of them inched toward another door at the end of the lobby, all while the creature then began to walk around, not toward them or away from them, just around. As if it were doing some exploring of its own. It walked, still hunched over, and quietly, its head still swinging back and forth like a grotesque pendulum.

"Guess he's bored." Helga shrugged. "Man, what the hell would they even call that thing?"

"I'm not sure I want to find out." Arnold shuddered, admittedly grossed out by its freakish proportions. "Let's keep going. We'll defend if it does decide to attack us."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.

A map of the apartment complex was on the wall near the door they were approaching, so Helga took it so they could navigate around. The building had four floors, two ground-level exits (including a fire exit and a back door to the courtyard), and a basement that was obviously to serve the utility room and storage.

"Okay, so the door our _friends_ came through leads to the fire exit and a stairwell heading upstairs. The other door right here leads down a corridor where there's a door to the basement, and also one leading out to the courtyard. So let's see if we can get out that way."

"Let's check it out, Helga. We might be able to get out that way."

Helga gave a curt nod and tucked the map into the bag. She drew out her gun again, double-checking to make sure it was fully loaded, and pushed open the door, before promptly stepping into the corridor. She held her gun to her and at arms length, looking much like a cop on one of those police dramas on TV. In any other circumstance, Arnold would've thought it was so cute and amusing.

"All clear. C'mon."

Arnold followed after her, and she came up beside him so they could both see down the corridor evenly with the light. A few windows lined up on the opposite wall, but were mostly opaque and hard to see out. The fog had come back outside, that was about the extent of the vision out these windows.

At the end of the corridor was the courtyard door. Helga tried it, and much to her dismay, the lock was broken. The door wouldn't open.

"Aw, criminy! I knew this method would be too easy." She groaned. "And the fire exit is electric powered."

Arnold paused, thinking of that for a moment. "We should try to find the breaker, see if we can restore power here."

"Fine." Helga sighed, kicking the courtyard door before following Arnold down back the way they came to reach the door to the basement.

To their relief, or dismay, neither were sure which, the door to the basement was locked. While it meant they COULD get into the door, since the lock wasn't at all broken, it was still locked and they would need a key.

"Maybe that key in the locker is the key we're looking for." Helga said, now heading back to the lobby. "We still gotta find something to get it with, though. Stupid locker."

Arnold considered. "Maybe I can pry it with the pipe?" He indicated the steel pipe he barely realized he was still holding.

"Eh, worth a shot."

Coming back into the lobby, their little pendulum-head monster was now standing behind the counter, turning to them as they came back into the room. It was still idling by, but was watching them. At least, that's what it seemed, despite that it didn't have any visible eyes.

"Yeegh. That thing gives me the creeps." Helga grimaced. "I can _feel_ it watching me. But I don't get why it's not doing anything."

"We could just leave it alone, it doesn't seem to-"

Helga just fired three shots at it. The monster stumbled, weakened, and then keeled over further, holding its stomach. It was almost pitiable to see a monster in such a way, but she knew better than to give these monsters an inch. She fired two more shots, which effectively killed it. Stomping on it hard to ensure of its death, she reloaded her gun. Upon that, she found three more boxes of handgun bullets, just what she needed.

Arnold meanwhile, was attempting to pry open the locker which contained the key, but was having no luck. The locker was too small, and despite the pipe not being very thick in diameter, was far too big.

"It's not working, I can't pry it at a proper angle. I'd need something smaller, or like you said, something like tweezers to reach in and grab the key." He sighed.

Helga shook her head, and went over to the receptionist counter, side-stepping over the fallen pendulum-headed monster. She spotted something shiny on the counter, which she motioned for Arnold to shine the flashlight on. With a better view and closer look, she saw that it was a fishing hook. It was small, but definitely big enough to hold properly.

"A fish hook! I can probably use that to get the key." Helga took it, seeing that there was a bit of a fishing line tied to it.

"Let's give it a try." Arnold agreed.

They went back over to the lockers, and Helga immediately went to work. Arnold stood back, making sure the flashlight provided enough light for Helga to see what she was doing. Sticking the fish hook through the opening, she managed to hook it around part of the key, and pull it toward her. It fell out onto the floor, which she picked up.

"Damn." She groaned. "It's not a key to the basement. It's a key to Room 206. Looks like our basement key might be somewhere upstairs."

"Well, maybe we can find something in the superintendent's room." Arnold suggested. "We can probably find a ring of keys to access the entire building."

Helga took the map out, studying it carefully. "Super's room is 105. Right upstairs. Hope the stairwell isn't locked."

"I guess we'll find out." Arnold said, and looked at her with concern. "...Are you okay, Helga? I mean, this whole thing has just gone insane, and I hope you're not too hurt, or too scared."

"I'm _fine_." Helga said indignantly, despite that deep down, she was touched by his concern. "I'm not scared, Football Head. I can handle myself. You better not get scared and wimp out on me."

"I'm terrified." Arnold admitted. "I'm scared as hell, Helga. ...But, I'm not going to let it stop me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I might be scared, but I'm not going to stop here. We're in this together, and I'm going to do everything I can to get us through it."

Turning away, a little smile came to her face. She knew why he was so determined and she admired him all the more for it. Exhaling, she turned back, and decided to just let her guard down a little. She hugged him, snuggling her head into his chest. Arnold stiffened with surprise, not expecting that, but he hugged her back as best as he could given he was still holding the steel pipe.

"I'm scared too." She admitted. "...Kinda better to be scared with someone else than alone, right?"

"...Yeah, that's true." He agreed, holding her tighter. He was scared, and so was she, but neither of them were going to give up. And he certainly was not going to let anything happen to her. The thought of one those monsters killing her was...no, he couldn't think about it. Losing Helga...someone who meant a lot more to him than he ever realized, was something he just couldn't think of, it would be horrible. As much as he wanted to hold her in his arms for all time, it was now time to keep going. "...C'mon Helga, we should keep going."

Helga nodded and reluctantly let go. "Then let's not dawdle any longer, Football Head. We've got an apartment to explore."

The pair went down the hallway that the monsters came in from earlier. Much to their relief, the stairwell door wasn't locked. So they ascended to the next floor, and came to find a row of the first floor apartments.

"This is going to be a long exploration." Helga groanned.


End file.
